I would expect that earlier in the Third Age each more developed community had its own currency.

However after the Shire, Esgaroth and other areas came under the control of the Reunited Kingdom I would expect that only currency was chosen for everyone.

I don't think that Tolkien gives us much detail on currency and prices in Middle-earth, though one could for example take examples from the European cultures from the Middle-Ages.

We know gold and silver were used as metals for currency, as we see these metals in the treasuries of the Dwarves, though their exact value is not made certain. Anyway, it's pretty clear the Dwarves also made a lot of profit from selling raw gold or silver ore to other people who needed it for currency. I would expect that not so well developed people like the Woodmen or the Easterlings only traded by exchanging different products, and that they did not have well established currencies.

Interesting question btw 

 

Very interesting quote, I really like the topic...

Please do post any other quotes on currencies that you find. 

This also brings the question as to what other currency amounts were there apart from pennies. perhaps chillings, half crowns, groats, pounds etc. In fact I am sure I have heard of Chillings somewhere in there...

Interesting coin Will. Is that genuine Tolkien work, or just some fan-art or some such? I didn't know Tolkien had gone so far as to draw his own coins.

A collector has created this site as a stab at trying to catalougue the Shire Post coins. It is NOT a sales site but more of a museum. He's taken some very nice photos and collected a lot of information. Many of the FAQs can be answered here.

http://www.less-than-zero.co.uk/coins/index.php

Well, and I don't mean this to be negative, but some of this is mixing fan-fiction with attested Tolkien.

Again, no problem with that, but when MOS asked: 'Is that genuine Tolkien work, or just some fan-art or some such?' I think he was wondering along those lines maybe.

Galin wrote:

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Well, and I don't mean this to be negative, but some of this is mixing fan-fiction with attested Tolkien.

Again, no problem with that, but when MOS asked: 'Is that genuine Tolkien work, or just some fan-art or some such?' I think he was wondering along those lines maybe.

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Fair enough. I won't break character often, but yes it's important to be clear. I was tremendously impressed by Tolkien's "voice" as narrator and  chronicler... as if the entire tale was true history and he was just putting it down. I tend to follow that lead. I generally assume that people who are fanatic enough about Tolkien to haunt these boards have at least read THE HOBBIT, all three volumes of THE LORD OF THE RINGS, (plus at least skimmed the appendices and have an idea what's there... and hopefully the SILMARILLION, and have of course seen the Peter Jackson film adaptations as well.  If folk have that much background then they know enough that they don't have to ask the question... they KNOW that these are fan-art productions (though the phrase "just some fan-art or some such" has a rather dismissive tone).  In this case I think Tolkien sketched out a wide panel and expects us to fill in the details. I would gladly have purchased Shire coins if any had been available when I first thought about it... but there were none and apparently nobody had ever even thought to make any. So I took it upon myself to do so, even though at the time I knew little about coinmaking (being mostly a knife and sword maker). I worked with master engravers, Tolkien linguists, medieval coin experts, and master machinists to learn the process and create something as real as conceivably possible... coins FROM the fantasy realm... not coins ABOUT the fantasy realm. It was all done using antique equipment, traditionally made tooling appropriate to the technological status of the realm, and real coining materials, including custom alloys and the exotic metals titanium, niobium, hafnium, and tantalum as stand-ins for the mythical metals; mithril, ithildin, and galvorn. The effort was epic and consumed several years of my life. It exists now as a body of work that is widely distributed out there in the universe of fans.

I have no problem at all, ever, with fan-art, as long as people are putting their best efforts forward and grounding their work in literary scholarship. (I don't particularly care for movie based fan-art. My biggest complaint with the Peter Jackson films is that his particular vision has now contaminated and narrowed the imagination of millions.)

So back in character... these coins are all actually FROM Middle Earth you see (wink wink) and were transmitted to our world via an interdimensional technique that is more than likely the same or similar to the one that The Professor used to learn all about ME and its stories. He had wisely kept secret the fact that actual artifacts (or "artyfacts) could be translated as well as pure text. My apologies for blowing the secret... but it's just too much FUN!

In service to Eru

Will.

 

As far as I know, in the 'lore forums' one can be in character and post about anything.  But stuff that's invented -- invented in fun and out of love for the tales no doubt -- to fill some gaps, I assume that goes in roleplaying forums.

I'm no MOD but I think that's the way of things at most Tolkien chat sites. Again, there seems to be nothing negative about keeping the two apart, it just helps with clarity I think.

I can't see any problem with an in-character member, it is just something we are not used to..

Perhaps if something does involve a direct out-of-character comment one could just provide a "OOC:...." at the bottom of their post?

OOC

Thanks for the comments and I like the idea of being able to stay in character as much as possible and just tagging certain posts with OOC as needed. Perhaps it might be best to both start and end a post (i.e. "bracket") with OOC so it's clear.

There was one particular event that cemented in my heart and mind why I do what I do. A person had received some of the coins I'd made as a gift from a friend and eventually found his way to my website and emailed me. Their comment was "I don't understand... I've read the books, but I thought they were just stories... but these coins are real!"

That sums up what it's all about for me... if for even a moment we can suspend disbelief and hold Middle Earth in our hearts as REAL, then everything in it becomes real as well. The heroic struggle, the joys, the adventure, the respect, the surges of valor, the pain of doubts, and perhaps even the horrors. It adds to our inner experience in a way that touches something deeper than the calculative mind and can perhaps even inform the development of our own personalities. Creating small everyday objects that can function as talismans or touchstones or mind focalization points... whatever you want to call them... items that can aid in the suspension of disblief... that's what I do.

OOC

All the Best!

I think the ooc idea will prevent any further misunderstandings.

I think as Will Whitfoot is the only one to post in-character I suppose this really only applies to him?

Maybe you should join the Bear at the "White Dragon" for some of Sam Gamgee's brew and Rosie's lembas ... by the fire ... listening to the Gaffer tell us what is wrong with the Shire?